Gibney said the former church enforcer was being eaten up inside by secrets when he confessed to organising for Nicole Kidman to be put under surveillance and have her phone tapped.

Gibney said the church feared Kidman, who was married to its prized celebrity member Tom Cruise, was stealing him away.

Gibney said the church dispatched Mr Rathbun to get him back into the church.

"As part of that Tom got suspicious of Nicole Kidman," he said.

"He went, by Marty's account, to Marty and said, 'you got to wiretap Nicole'. Marty laughed it off, went to [Scientology head David] Miscavige and said, 'Well Tom wanted me to do this,' and Miscavige said 'get it done.'

"So then, according to Marty, he empowered some people to wiretap Nicole Kidman."

Going Clear also deals with 'The Hole', which Gibney said was a prison-like re-education camp for Scientology's top lieutenants.

"It was a couple of double-wide trailers at the Gold Base, which is just outside of Las Vegas [across the state border] in California. It is since no more," he said.

"They lived in very rough conditions, sometimes the food was served as slop on the floor.

"Ants were crawling all over the place and there was a lot of physical assaulting going on, where people were actually encouraged or told to beat each other up if they were being disloyal or bad."

They lived in very rough conditions, sometimes the food was served as slop on the floor. Ants were crawling all over the place and there was a lot of physical assaulting going on.

Alex Gibney

Gibney said some people stayed at The Hole for a number of years so they could "confess their sins".

He said it was a way for Mr Miscavige to hold power in the Church.

"In a way it reminded me of Mao's Cultural Revolution, you know that's what he did, he turned the leaders of the Communist Party in on themselves so that he could exalt himself and take ultimate power," he said.

The Church of Scientology says the so-called 'Hole' was more like a resort.

But Gibney says he has had first-hand accounts from a number of people.

"There was a literal prison with the windows barred and a guard outside, [but] really, the door was open. They could've walked out," he said.

"I asked them, 'If the FBI had showed up would you have said, 'Thank God you're here?' and they said, 'No, we want to be here. We've been bad, and we deserve to be punished.'"

The Church of Scientology has vehemently crusaded against Going Clear, saying in an official statement no attempt was made by Gibney or HBO to involve practicing members of the church in the film.

"Those featured [in the] film regurgitating their discredited allegations are admitted perjurers, liars and professional anti-Scientologists whose living depends on the filing of false claims," the church said.

"All have been gone so long from the Church they know nothing of it today."

HBO received a number of threats from the church threatening to sue, but Gibney said the claim from HBO's Sheila Nevins that they had put 160 lawyers across the film was a joke.

"We didn't have 160 lawyers, but a few very good ones," he said.

The Church of Scientology have provided Lateline with a statement saying "Alex Gibney's film is bigoted propaganda built on falsehoods invented by admitted liars."

In her resignation from politics, Kelly O'Dwyer said she feared another miscarriage in Canberra, far from home. Her announcement is shocking for more than just party-political reasons, writes Emma A. Jane.